Silver began that process on Tuesday with a forceful show of resolve, announcing that he would not only institute a lifetime ban and a maximum $2.5 million fine for Sterling, but would immediately begin a process provided for in the NBA constitution that would allow Sterling’s fellow owners to force him into selling the team.

Silver was pressed about why Sterling has not been punished previously, especially in light of two major lawsuits against him—one a federal discrimination lawsuit stemming from his practices as a landlord in 2003, the other a lawsuit by former Clippers executive Elgin Baylor in 2009.

Silver pointed out that in the ’03 case, Sterling wound up settling. And in the ’09 case, Baylor ultimately lost.

It’s wrong to think that the league just didn’t care about what an odious presence Sterling was during that time—a league source told SN that commissioner David Stern had, more than once, considered ways in which he could oust Sterling.

Stern knew he would be on shaky legal ground in going after Sterling, that only a narrow reading of league bylaws would open a legal path to forcing Sterling out based on cases that had been settled or in which Sterling had prevailed. The bigger challenge was that he did not have the support of Sterling’s fellow owners—that’s ultimately the group Stern was overseeing. The NBA swallowed hard and tolerated Sterling.

Silver said that a section of the league’s rules allows for an owner to be removed from that post if three-quarters of the league’s owners are in favor of such an action. Silver acknowledged that he has not done a formal poll on the subject, but when asked about the possibility, he said, “I fully expect to get the support I need from the other NBA owners to remove him.”

In coming down so emphatically and forcefully on Sterling, Silver has cleared the path for his removal, essentially telling Sterling that he can go cooperatively or he can go with some sort of extended legal battle, but that either way, he will have to go.

While there is some expectation that Sterling would never give up his title of Clippers owner voluntarily, Silver seems to have successfully surrounded him and left him with no palatable options other than a sale.

Sterling is a billionaire who does not need the money and, at 81 years old, derives the bulk of his identity from being the owner of the team. Striding up the Staples Center sideline and taking his seat at midcourt, collar opened and 20-something mistress on his arm, has always been the way Sterling wanted to showcase himself.

Silver has taken that away. Sterling will never set foot in another Clippers game again. He will never sit courtside watching his team like the “plantation owner,” he allegedly likened himself to. If he derived his status from being an NBA owner, that’s gone—he is the owner in name only, and now he’s just a weird, old rich man, something not too hard to find in Los Angeles.

Silver still must round up 23 owners willing to vote to oust Sterling, though there is the chance he won’t have to actually go that far. Despite the obvious fact that Sterling has a litigious nature, surely even he, however twisted his worldview might be, can see the writing is on the wall and he needs to get rid of this team.

That could mean a sale within the family—to his daughter and son-in-law, who works for the team, for example—even if that is not the most satisfactory result. A sale to Lakers great and Dodgers owner Magic Johnson would be saturated in irony, and would be the dream scenario for the NBA, but that remains a longshot.

Silver was asked about the possibility of Sterling selling the team within his family. “We’ve made no decisions about other members of the Sterling family,” Silver said. “This ruling applies specifically to Donald Sterling and Donald Sterling’s conduct only.”

Though Silver could not say for sure that he has 23 owners behind him in forcing Sterling to sell, there was a flood of statements from a variety of front offices on Monday, ranging from members of the old guard like Paul Allen, Les Alexander and Jerry Reinsdorf to new guys Vivek Ranadive and Josh Harris, all condemning Sterling’s statements.

It’s not difficult to see through that outpouring as an attempt at self-preservation, with Sterling drawing international backlash. There’s no question that the owners have long buried their heads in sand when it comes to Sterling. But if an impulse toward self-preservation leads to the right result, so be it.

Quotes attributed to Sterling in previous lawsuits were as outrageous and offensive as those that have caused this round of controversy. But they were not on tape, nor were they given the kind of mainstream exposure that the recorded version of his conversation with his mistress has gotten.

That’s what has changed, and what will hopefully cause Sterling to see the light. Sterling is on tape, his voice making skin-crawling statements—in the lawsuits, comments attributed to Sterling mostly came from ex-employees and those who were suing him, and his bigotry applied to groups of people in general. He slithered away from the kind of public outcry that would have forced owners into this kind of action by settling suits and claiming that the allegations against him were false.

Not this time. With that tape, we can hear for ourselves that Sterling is a creepy, deranged man unfit to be the public face for an NBA franchise. Oddly, the tape of this one conversation is more powerful than the reams of paper generated over the past 15 years by Sterling lawsuits. It has made the rest of the world take notice, exposing the owners’ longstanding blind spot for Sterling’s malfeasance and misanthropy.

They’re mobilized against Sterling. Silver, too, has come down on him, in a way that Stern never could. Things are different for Sterling this time, and the only possible result now is the sale of the franchise.